Terrors of the Night
I don't know how long I slept before I heard the cabin door unlock, and someone walk in. But I knew I was not looking forward to lecture I was about to receive from Riku.
"Wake up." Just to spite him, I remained in my sleeping position, facing the wooden wall. "Wake up." He repeated, a little louder. Still I refused to show any signs that I was awake already. Until his hands grabbed my shoulders roughly and shook me, causing me immense pain in my abdomen. "I said wake up!"
"Agh! What the fuck you jackass!? I was sleeping! You don't shake an injured person violently!"
"Shut up!"
"Fuck off!" A silence hung between us, both of us glaring at each other. The usual sparkle in his eyes was gone. And there was something else. His aura was more foul than before. Darker. And more powerful. It was in his heart too. The dark infection had expanded in the time I had been asleep. "Something's... different. What did you do!?"
"I got the power to control the heartless. And since you don't seem to have any sense of loyalty to me, I need that power if I'm going to save Kairi!"
"Don't you dare talk to me about loyalty, you hypocrite!"
"How am I the hypocrite!? You said you'd never leave my side and yet you were running around with Sora and his new friends! You're not just a hypocrite, but a liar as well!"
SLAP!
"Don't you ever call me a liar!" I hissed breathing heavily, the sudden movement of striking him had used quite a bit of the energy I had recovered. He didn't turn his face back to me but I could clearly see the anger flaring around him and the red mark on his face. But I didn't care. I was going to get through to him. "You're blind to what is happening to you, aren't you!? You can't see that you're becoming a monster because you're jealous! You don't care that he found friends! You care about the fact that he's travelling the world's just like you wanted to! And you're jealous of him! But what you don't seem realise is he's been travelling the worlds trying to get you back! He misses you and Kairi! And I know you miss him too! So why won't you go to him!? I saw you when you fought alongside each other in Monstro! You've never been happier! It's not too late! I know it's not! Go to him!" I awaited his response, but he didn't give me any. He just stood up and walked out of the room.
"Make sure she doesn't get out." He said to Black. There was only one word to describe Riku at that point in time.
"COWARD!"
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A few days later, I had enough strength to walk around my cabin. It was difficult, considering the boat rocked on the cosmic waves. But I had formulated a plan to escape. Whether Riku would go with me was his choice alone. I was done trying to help him. Riku hadn't spoken to me in the past three days. I knocked on the door and called out to Black. "Hello? Are you still out there?" He didn't reply, but I could hear him breathing loudly. "If you are there, could you let me out?" It took a while but he eventually replied with a thick, deep voice.
"Orders are not to let you out."
"But I have to go to the bathroom!"
"You can hold it."
"I've been holding it for ages! If I don't get to a bathroom soon, I'll wet myself."
"Why should I care?"
"Because if I have an accident, I don't think your captain or Maleficent will be very pleased about it. And I'll bet you'll be the one who has to clean up the mess." I waited for a moment then heard the door unlock and I crossed my legs as if I really did urgently need to pee, which wasn't entirely a made up tale. He held up some handcuffs and put them on me. "I can only hold it for a few more minutes and I can't walk very quickly!" He looked very unhappy but he picked me up and took me to the ship's 'bathroom'. I use the term very loosely as it was, simply put, a bucket in a cupboard with dried seaweed for toilet paper and an open hatch, too small for me to climb through but big enough to substitute a flush. I did what I had to do while I was there, and just as we re-entered my cabin, I elbowed Black in the throat, making him fall to the floor, wheezing. I picked up the keys from his belt and unlocked my handcuffs. Black was probably big enough to knock down the door himself, so I used the hand cuffs to connect his left wrist to his right ankle and locked the cabin door behind me.
"Get back here you little bitch!" I heard him roar. I grinned and hurried to the deck. Most of the pirate crew were asleep since it was the middle of the night but thanks to Black's yelling, some of them had woken up and were alerting each other to follow me. By the time I had reached the deck, I had nowhere else to run. Everywhere I turned a gang of three to seven crew members barred my path and the towering pirate I had humiliated emerged with a sickening grin. Black had escaped his bonds and threw me down near the plank, where the rest of the crew closed any gaps, surrounding me. He held up the handcuffs and had a foul smile on his face. "Ya left these behind, brat. Me thinks I should return them to ya and then return ya to ya cabin." He and the crew laughed horribly "Although, me thinks the plank is a more suitable place for ya." However just as he was about to grab me, Riku pushed in front of him, two Battleship Heartless hovering nearby, threateningly.
"You lay a finger on her, and I'll make sure it's you walking off the end of that plank." He spat. I made it to my feet but I was now on the ship end of the plank and the pirates were still blocking my way. "She's my prisoner, not yours." He glared at Black then turned to me and held his hand out to me. "Come on, Raven. You know you can't go anywhere. There's nowhere else to run." I shuffled back a little so I was outside of the ship's boundaries. "Just come quietly and I promise you won't get hurt." He put one foot on the plank, making it wobble. "Trust me." I took a small step towards him but Black had lost his patience.
"Out of the way, boy! I'll just drag her back on deck!" He pushed Riku out of the way and set foot on the plank. His weight was probably three times Riku's so the wobble of the plank was exceedingly more violent, causing me to lose my footing at the edge of the plank.
"Whoa~" I waved my arms trying to stay on the thin piece of wood but he took another step and my balance failed as I fell from the Jolly Roger to the world below. I saw Riku throw himself onto the wood where he reached his hand out to me, the Battleship Heartless vanishing, but it was a matter of too little, too late. But I was free of the Jolly Roger. Riku didn't follow me off of the ship though. He had made his decision.
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"STOPZA!" My body froze a metre off of the ground. I had thought I was going to impact the ground at full force since I couldn't cast Alae while in mid air. But a familiar quack saved me.
"Look guys! It's Raven!" Goofy's distinctive voice happily announced. The time spell wore off and I hit the floor with a much less impactful landing than I would have if Sora, Donald and Goofy hadn't been there.
"What're the odds we'd run into you again?" I sat up and yelped. The three of them looked horrific! Donald was mummified but his stomach was missing! Goofy looked like some creepy experiment of Hojo's and Sora's eyes were shaded and fangs poked out from his lips!
"What the hell happened to you three!? You're all creepy and Donald your stomach's missing!" A mixture of my pain, the shock of seeing three friends as something out of a horror story and the fact I'd just fallen several thousand feet, caused me to pass out in front of the trio.
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"Ngh! Agh... What?" I opened my eyes to find myself in some kind of laboratory. "Where am I!?" I sat upright, and was surprised to feel no pain. But that made me panic more. "Am I dead!? Did I really hit the floor?" I looked at myself and saw fur covering my body where skin should have been and I was wearing shackles and a collar with broken chains. I was wearing a red tartan shirt that was torn at the shoulders and tied at the waist and shorts that were almost completely shredded at the thighs. The only piece of clothing not damaged was my thick soled boots that came to my ankles. "WHAT THE HELL HAPPENED TO ME!?"
"Oh hey, she's awake!" I looked at the door, and Sora, Donald and Goofy entered, accompanied by a tall skeleton!
"It's about time! She's been taking up room on my precious experiment table." An old man in a wheelchair came down the slope in the room. He then lifted his scalp and scratched his brain!
'Experiment Table!?'
"What's going on!? Why am I all furry!? What is this place!?"
"Calm down, Raven! No one's gonna hurt you here." Sora reassured me. "Donald just used a spell to make you blend in with the locals."
"So... I'm not like this permanently?" I asked the mummified duck.
"Only while you're in Halloween Town. You'll go back to normal when you leave." I sighed with relief then as I looked to my right, I saw a heartless exactly like the ghosts in Monstro.
"AAHH!" I was so startled, I fell off the table. "Ooow..." I rubbed my head and noticed something moving between my legs. "A TAIL!?" Everyone except the doctor started chuckling. Then the skeleton handed a forget-me-not flower to the doctor who ground it into a fine powder and then sprinkled it into a heart shaped container with a lock on it. "Hey, what's he doing?"
"We're creating a heart for the heartless! This year Halloween will be dominated by my dancing troop of heartless! It'll be the most terrifying Halloween ever!" The skeleton explained rather enthusiastically.
'They're creating a heart? Is that even possible?'
"You're using the heartless as dancing partners?"
"Yes, it's going to be the scariest Halloween we've ever had! But we need a heart to get the heartless to dance in sync."
"Hey, Raven?" Sora asked, offering a clawed, gloved hand to me and helping me up.. "What's happened to you over these past few days? I mean with Riku. Is he okay? Why was he acting so strange? Is he sick?"
"I... I've been asking myself the same thing, Sora. I think he's-"
"There we go. This time it's sure to work!" The doctor interrupted triumphantly, completing the makeshift 'heart'. It was then it dawned on me that I had no idea who the two nightmarish characters were.
"I'm sorry but, I don't know your names." The skeleton seemed to jump at the opportunity to introduce himself and released a terrifying display of... Well... Terror.
"Ah! How forgetful of me. I'm the Pumpkin King Jack Skellington! That brilliant mind helping us create the heart is Dr Finklestein." I looked at the old man. He was currently directing his wheelchair to the table but a small boy in a skeleton costume tripped him up and sent the 'heart' flying into the arms of another small boy in a devil costume! He was quickly joined by a young girl in a pink witch's costume and the skeleton boy as they bolted out of the door before anyone could stop them.
"AFTER THEM!" the Dr screeched. The five of us ran out of the laboratory to follow the three little kids. We were almost immediately met with more ghost heartless and a few one eyed mummy heartless too long with some gargoyle type heartless. It'd been a while since I'd fought something properly, but in my condition it was not advisable. However with four other people fighting alongside me and my pain suspended again, I felt I could at least help here and there. The quartet fought the heartless until they were nearly defeated, then I finished them off one by one so as not to over exert myself. We made it to the place where I'd arrived but the trio of kids were nowhere to be seen.
"We lost them!" Sora exclaimed.
"There aren't any tracks anymore." I added, scratching my ear, which I was surprised to feel it was slightly pointy. And I felt some of the dusty residue of the heartless in my fur. As I combed through the matting fur, cleansing it of Heartless guts, I noticed another character approaching us. A girl around my age. I nudged Sora to alert him of the new arrival. This girl had a pale complexion and wore spider witch attire and stumbled clumsily in high heeled boots she clearly had no practice with. It was much alike myself in that situation. This new girl had blonde hair near her shoulders and I imagined it would've looked very healthy and lovely if it wasn't powdered with a dusting of cobwebs. But what intrigued me the most, was her bright green eyes. They made me feel... somewhat nostalgic for some unknown reason. I put the emotion out of my head and scanned her heart for any signs of hostility. It didn't seem there was any ill intent within her so I lowered my guard ever so slightly. There was something peculiar about her heart. I could tell it wasn't from this universe. It didn't faze me that much since I had already encountered Tegan, but there was something else I couldn't quite place. There was a similar emotion in her heart as well. The same one within me that I didn't recognise.
By now the rest of the party were staring at her, making the poor girl seem a tad timid. But she spoke nonetheless, realising our eyes were watching her.
"Um, excuse me," She had halted as she started speaking. "But I have no clue where I am or how I managed to get here. Maybe you guys can help me?" Oh yes. She was very similar to me in that department too. Her body was well structured, agile and athletic, but still clearly showed the signs of an adolescent female. She was also, as I myself felt self conscious in her presence, quite beautiful. Arguably more beautiful than Kairi, whereas I was merely average on a normal day. However at that point in time I was covered in fur and possessed the snout, pointy ears, claws and a tail of a canine. I decided to feign naivety to put her at ease. Seeing five terrifying figures such as myself and my comrades would've set anyone on edge.
"Oh!" I yelped in fake surprise, holding my snout closed for extra tension easing effect. "Sorry, I'm not used to the creepy outfits around here." I noticed the girl's eyes flicker to the musty, grimy bandages encasing my abdomen before continuing and answering her question as to where she was. "You're in Halloween Town. Hence the creepy outfits." I gestured to myself and my group. The spider witch glanced around at the environment.
"Halloween Town, huh? I guess the name suits it." She looked at us again and seemed to fully take in our appearance. I observed she had lingered on Donald's missing body, just as I had done when I arrived. "What are your names? I'm Iva." She stared at Jack the longest and I could see she felt uncomfortable with seeing through his ribcage. Since I seemed to be the only one communicating, I was the one to hold my shackled hand out to Iva and introduce ourselves.
"Raven Tymari. This is Jack Skellington, Donald Half-A-Duck, Goofy and Sora." I gestured to each of them to let Iva know which name matched which creep. At the mention of Sora's name, her eyes widened and her heart reacted with familiarity. She'd heard his name before. Perhaps she knew the Riku of her universe? She didn't react verbally to him however. A smart move considering complications weren't a sought after affair. But I was intending on questioning her about it later on.
"Well, it's nice to meet you guys, I guess. How did you all get here? I was messing around with a spell book and accidentally opened up a portal here, so of course I did the smart thing and walked straight into it... And now I have no clue how to get back." So it was a similar situation to Tegan. A magical mishap. And exactly the same as I did with Tegan, I was going to help this girl, Iva. I could tell she had been through intense emotional trauma and I also sensed immense magical potential. But I daren't look at her memories. Having suffered much myself, I respected her privacy on any similar matters.
"Well, I'm sure you can hang out with us until we find a way to get you home." I confirmed it with the group using a quick look. As I looked back at Iva and gave her a confirmation with my gaze, she nodded with relief.
"Thanks, that would be nice. I'd hate to be here on my own. This place is creepy." At her last comment, Jack seemed to beam with pride.
"Hey, maybe you can help us too!" Sora piped up, energetic and social as ever. Iva, knowing of Sora beforehand, scanned him carefully. And I scanned her, making sure she had no ill will towards him.
"Maybe. What do you guys need help with?" She inquired. Once again, the duty of communicating with her fell on my fluffy shoulders.
"Well, we've been trying to create a heart. Jack here wants to get the Heartless to dance with him for Halloween. We think it worked but we hit a slight snag." I began, but Donald interrupted.
"Three kids in costumes stole it before we could test it!" He squawked angrily. Clearly agitated, he folded his wings and tapped his foot frantically. I continued where I had left off.
"We've been tracking them, but their trail ends here. You haven't seen them have you? A pink witch, a red devil and a purple skeleton?" I asked, hopeful for results. Unfortunately, Iva shook her head.
"The first people I saw were you guys. But I'll help you find them! I just learned a tracking spell – it'll point us in the right direction!" She looked around her, searching for something. "Do you happen to have a stick or something? It'll work like a compass, but I have to cast the spell on something for it to work." As she said this, she was fidgeting with her dress, searching for pockets or something similar, displaying great discomfort on her face, which amused me as it revealed yet another common trait. We both hated dresses. For once, I was not the one to answer Iva. Instead, Jack was.
"Would a ghost of a dog be of assistance?" Jack patted his leg and a ghostly dog with a glowing orange nose zoomed over to us. From a grave labelled 'Zero'. "His nose isn't what it used to be." He patted Zero's head affectionately.
"Well, I can give it a shot! It can't hurt him, at least." Iva held her hands out and concentrated on the ghostly canine in front of her. She clearly showed unsettlement in the fact he was a dead dog but proceeded nonetheless. Her concentration increased and she began muttering to herself the incantation of the spell. Zero's nose suddenly glowed brightly and he even more suddenly turned and pointed his snout towards the curly hill with the signpost 'Moonlight Hill' in the centre of the graveyard. Iva seemed pleased with herself as she grinned back at us. "Looks like it worked! But I have to ask, Jack – why are you trying to make a heart for the heartless? I thought that their lack of hearts is what makes them what they are?" Jack seemed to beam even more at the opportunity to explain his grand plan for Halloween.
"As Raven kindly explained a moment ago, I want the Heartless to dance with me for Halloween. They're so terrifying, they'll send chills though every bone of every spectator! But in order to dance, one requires passion and understanding of fear. So the heartless must have a heart to dance." Iva simply nodded. I could tell she shared my thoughts on creating a heart for the heartless. It was a bad idea. But she kept quiet about it. I assumed she didn't want to discourage Jack. She gazed at Moonlight Hill again.
"Well, shall we go? Maybe we can catch up to these kids and get the heart back. If it really was a successful experiment, that could be dangerous in the wrong hands." Iva's eyes didn't leave the curly hilltop. "Does that lead somewhere?" It was a strange question but the hill did look like it could unfurl.
"The graveyard gates. They leave Halloween Town. Now to put an end to this wild goose chase. Zero, after them, quick!" The dog whooshed off at his master's command and his master followed with the keyblader and his friends.
"C'mon." I said to Iva, following suit with speed and Iva not far behind me. The gash in my stomach hadn't been hurting a lot since I'd woken up in Dr Finklestein's laboratory but as we neared the location of the three mischief makers, it was slowly starting to hurt, increasing in intensity as we got closer. We came to the top of Moonlight Hill, tapping a sign on the way which made the hill unfurl to make a bridge to the stone wall separating the areas of the graveyard. We each crossed, one by one, Goofy wobbling more than anyone else and we were by a stone bridge which crossed a river to a pair of wrought iron gates.
"What's behind there?" Iva inquired. Admittedly I was wondering the same thing. Whatever was beyond that gate, was making my wound hurt.
"The exit of Halloween Town." Jack began to explain but I noticed one of the mummy heartless swaggering towards Iva and without even thinking I tackled her to the ground out of the way of its claws. If I had been any later, it would've knocked her head off. The girl yelped as we impacted the ground and she squirmed beneath me, rubbing uncomfortably against my injury.
"Thanks for that," She said dryly prior to shooting a fire spell at the heartless, its bandages catching fire and burning it to oblivion. Looking around, I saw we were surrounded by heartless and joined my companions in a defensive stance. We began fighting at the same time. I didn't want to pick them off one by one or concentrate on one for too long so I darted between five heartless, damaging and weakening them. Then to finish them all at once,
"GET DOWN!" I spread my arms and pivoted on the spot, sending out a wave of the blue inferno, incinerating my opponents and damaging any of the stronger ones enough for the others to finish them quickly. Exhausted from the overexertion, I fell to one knee but I managed to fend off any remaining heartless that came too close. After a couple of minutes, Iva was stood next to me and then knelt with her hand on my shoulder.
"Hey, let me help you. Take some of my energy." Iva cast the second level healing spell, Cura, to try and help me. Unfortunately, potions and healing spells had no effect on the wound. I had a little more energy back, but the injury would still be as bad as it was, I knew it. She looked upon me with worry apparent in her eyes. "Are you hurt? Or was that spell just a bit much?" I pushed her hand away.
"Don't waste your magic on me. You can't help. I'll be fine, I'm a SOLDIER, I can manage." I smiled reassuringly at her, stood up, swaying slightly and caught a gargoyle heartless by the throat and stabbed it before it could take my head off. I could see Iva was still worried but she continued fighting the heartless nonetheless until the area was clear.
"I guess we should move on now."The blonde spider witch announced, stepping forward. I stepped up next to her, still breathing deeply due to a combination of increasing pain and exhaustion.
"You're... Pretty good with magic. I never grasped it's concept myself." It was true. I was afraid of lightning so I couldn't learn thunder spells and I hadn't even started to learn blizzard spells. I was amused to see Iva's pale cheeks gain a pink colour at my praise and she stared at the ground, embarrassed.
"Thanks. I've had it for a long time, and only just recently started to learn how to control it. It kinda comes naturally, but sometimes it just doesn't wanna listen to me." She shrugged as she looked up again. "I guess so long as I don't start panicking, I'm fine." She halted in front of the iron gates towering above us. Zero was barking excitedly at the gates, confirming the children were beyond it. "I guess they're through here. Shall we go?" We all started forwards again, but I noticed my bandages had come loose, they were brushing my clawed hands. I had to make sure they remained tight so I stopped.
"You guys go ahead, I'll catch up. Just gotta sort something out." I watched as they all nodded and went through the gates and I saw Iva waiting not too far ahead. The wound looked no better, as expected. Purple fumes drifted from the gash, my blood was a mixture of red and black and it reeked of darkness. I fiddled and fumbled with the linen but not used to having claws or fur, I kept dropping the cloth. This went on for a few minutes before I finally managed to fasten the bandages securely around my waist again and I joined Iva. She knew something was wrong underneath the linen.
"You know, I'm pretty good with healing magic, too, if you uh... Need any help or anything." She said quietly as we started catching up to the others. The words made me feel guilty for yelling at Riku before, as they made the memory resurface. "It wouldn't be a 'waste' of magic. I'm sure I could handle it." I smiled again.
"It's fine, Iva, really. I've tried healing magic, potions, everything. They don't work. Maleficent found a strong pain killer but it doesn't help heal it." I explained. Iva grimaced as we continued up a set of wooden stairs. We were walking on what looked like a giant twisted version of a child's tree house.
"I'm sorry to hear that. I wish I could help, though." I smiled again at her kindness as we reached the top of the tree house where Zero was barking at the door which was the only exit and entrance.
"They must be in there!" Jack exclaimed, excitedly. "Let's get our heart back!" As they were about to enter, I decided it was time to talk with Iva properly.
"I'll wait out here and stand watch. Iva, would you mind joining me?"
"Oh, uh, sure." She took her position on the other side of the door opposite myself. while everyone else entered the room and sounds of fighting could be heard from within but they were short lived. Both of us had our guards up and as she was looking around, I stared intently at her, and she noticed in no time. Well no time like the present to get answers.
"I know you're from another universe, Iva. I know you know Riku and Maleficent and you also know of Sora." I could see the astonishment in her widened eyes and slack jaw.
"H-How do you know all of that? Did I give anything away? And a different UNIVERSE!? That portal must've brought me further than I thought..." Then she looked away and what she said next, made me feel a great amount of empathy. "Well, you're not wrong. My world was attacked by Heartless, and I ended up in Maleficent's castle. She taught me how to use my magic, and Riku taught me how to fight. I only know Sora from what he's told me, and I've seen him, but he's never seen me. But if this is a different universe, not just a different world, he wouldn't remember me, would he?" She looked back to me. "So does that mean that the Maleficent you know, and the Maleficent I know are different?"
"Let's just say I have a few special abilities and experience." My tone went bitter as the witch came up in the discussion. "And yes, they are different people, but I'm willing to bet they have the same appearance and personality as an evil bitch." Iva seemed to shiver and I wasn't surprised since we were on the topic of the so called 'mistress of evil'.
"Yeah, probably. Still, she's one of the most powerful magic users in all the worlds... At least, that's what she tells me. Reading the books in the library kinda support that though." She was silent for a moment. Then asked another question. "Wait, if you know Maleficent, do you know Riku?" I just sighed before answering.
"Yes, I do. And I know that you do too. And not only that, I know you have feelings for him that you don't understand." She blushed again as she looked down once more.
"Y'know, it's kinda creepy you know all this..." She huddled into herself to keep warm. " You're right though. I don' know what to think about Riku. He... He reminds me of someone I once knew. Not that they're similar, but that I feel so comfortable around him. I thought I'd never feel like that again. But he's changing, and not for the better. I think he's letting the darkness in his heart take over... I'm afraid I'll lose him forever. And I truly don't know what will happen to me if that happens." She looked up again. "What about you? Are you friends with him? Or... Something more?" It was my turn to get embarrassed but I smiled all the same and answered truthfully.
"Y'know... I'm not really sure myself. Riku's been off lately too. In fact he's the reason I fell from the Jolly Roger, sort of. And you will lose him and so will I if we don't get through to him- them. Maybe it's not too late for your Riku. My Riku is crazy. He locked me in my cabin because I was with Sora, Donald and Goofy inside a giant whale. Don't ask.
"Oh, you mean Monstro?" She laughed lightly. "Yeah I've been there too. Gross. It was so slimy." She sighed. "I just hope I can get through to him. I know that the darkness isn't the way to go find Kairi, but he just can't see that. I think Maleficent's brainwashed him. Stupid witch." This puzzled me.
"You mean he hasn't found her yet? That's part of the reason he's being such an ass. He thought I was betraying him and Kairi." Iva paused for a minute, thinking of how to phrase her reply.
"Well, kinda. It just feels like she's not really Kairi, y'know? He found her body, but she isn't there, so he doesn't think he's found her." She sighed, looking depressed. I could relate. "Kidnapping princesses and turning on his friend... I hope I haven't lost him already." She turned her gaze to the cloudy night. "I'm actually really curious as to how Kairi didn't turn into a Heartless, since she doesn't have a heart."
"I've been wondering the same thing. My theory is that Maleficent is faking it." I noticed a strange look in Iva's eyes before she shook her head as if clearing her mind.
"I don't know. Kairi seems pretty out of it. And with all this talk of Princesses of Heart... Maybe Kairi is like them. Maybe her heart is too pure to become a Heartless... I don't know." Her words gave me an idea. I hadn't been able to take a look at Kairi properly but I was willing to bet I could find her heart if I got the chance to look at her body. "Are they DONE yet!?" Iva snapped impatiently, startling me from my thoughts. As if on cue, The rest of the group burst out of the door.
"We gotta find the green door!"
"A green door? Why?" Iva asked.
"That's the entrance to Oogie Boogie's location and he has the heart!" Jack explained quickly as he led the party back down to the whereabouts of the green door, printed with Oogie's face behind a guillotine.
"Good lord, this place is creepy."
"C'mon! We've got a heart to find!" Sora pushed the door open, leading us into a sort of twisted casino with a layout resembling a Russian roulette game.
"If we lose, I'm in such deep shit." I remarked. A familiar cackle resounded followed by the matching voice.
"You want it? Well then come on over and get it!" To our disgust and horror, he opened his mouth and stuffed the heart inside! Iva laughed dryly.
"Don't worry, we'll beat him. He's a joke." As soon as she finished talking, we were blown into the Russian roulette by a minor explosion, the sack of bugs cackling on.
"Now, let's see if I can get their attention! Oh Heartless!?" In response, two gargoyles flapped next to him, enraging the fiend greatly. "Nobody disrespects me! NOBODY!" As the wheel started spinning and the Heartless came down to our level, I knew they were the priority and formulated a quick tactic.
"Sora! You, Donald, Goofy and Jack take the sack! Me and Iva will handle any Heartless and help you guys out when we can!"
"Right!"